Your letter from ES reminded me of my own experience with Helphire. My car, a C Class Merc, the cooking version, was scraped on the nearside by a bus as it pushed into a slow moving queue when the bus lane ran out. My insurers, Saga, said as it was clearly not my fault I was entitled to an equivalent replacement while mine was off the road. So what did I get but a Cadillac with 56 miles on the clock? I protested on the grounds that there was no hand over when I collected the car at the repairers or when I took it back leaving me open to blame if it was damaged. Then the other insurers objected to the cost and I was told that I might have to go to court to justify the hire of this outrageous car.

I was put in touch with a solicitor, part of the team, who told me how to deal with this, adding that it was not likely I would be asked to attend court. And so it turned out. Helphire’s offices are here in Bath and I notice their previously busy car park is empty. Saga lost me as a client over this episode